Light Table is an IDE that pioneered live programming—seeing code results instantly as you type. Created by Chris Granger after a successful Kickstarter campaign, it demonstrated new possibilities for development environments.
Kickstarter Success
Light Table raised over $316,000 on Kickstarter in 2012, demonstrating strong interest in reimagining how programmers write code. It became one of the first major open-source projects funded this way.
Key Innovations
Light Table introduced:
- Inline evaluation: See results next to code as you type
- Watches: Monitor values in real-time
- Instarepl: Instant REPL connected to your code
- Connection-based editing: Edit running applications
Design Philosophy
Light Table aimed to make programming more immediate:
- Reduce the edit-compile-run cycle to nothing
- Show documentation and results where you need them
- Connect editing directly to running systems
Influence
Light Table’s ideas spread to:
- VS Code (some team members joined Microsoft)
- Jupyter notebooks (inline results)
- Modern IDE features (inline evaluation, watches)
- Live programming research
Technology
Built with ClojureScript and Electron (before Electron was widely adopted), Light Table demonstrated that web technologies could create sophisticated desktop applications.
Legacy
Though Light Table itself didn’t achieve mainstream adoption, its influence on developer tools was significant. The concept of live, inline evaluation is now standard in many environments.